Jill and Jason's Starting Thread

[imme]

"H-honey? Hurry, it's cold outside."

[Laraqua]

Silence flows thickly around her, broken by the tapping of keys somewhere in the distance.

[SuAside]

Jason would give Jill an applause, but he figures that would draw unwanted attention to himself.

"Grown-ups are so freaking gullible..." he silently sighs instead.

[imme]

All of a sudden Jill panics, realizing the doors she had (apparently) worked so hard to seal are now standing wide open to whatever danger is waiting outside ... where her husband was supposed to be. She grabs the door next to her and throws it closed. She works as best she can in the dark to close the other and chain them again.

[Laraqua]

Jill's left hand snaps out and grabs the door, her mind instinctively remembering where the door handle was, and draws it shut. Taking a few steps forward and reaching out she hesitates momentarily as a blast of cold air hits her face like a wall. Moist warm air hits behind her ear and flows down her neck in the moment of that hesitation, snapping her from her shock. She reaches forward the rest of the way, her hand slipping across the cool wood of the door. Slipping up, slipping down, until finally she grasped icy cool metal. She draws the handle down as she drags it backward and closed. She ducks down, picks up the loops of chain and prepares to affix it back to the door.

Jason feels the coldness become deeper. It comes in waves, drawing the warmth from his bones. He can hear movement out there in the darkness, the sound of a woman breathing heavily, of doors moving, of something shuffling somewhere above him. He manages to keep his demeanordespite the claustrophobic darkness closing in around him.

[SuAside]

With chills running down his spine, Jason goes to grab a blanket, but somehow he expects it to be of little use.

[Laraqua]

Jason gropes his way along the wall to one of the cots and reaches one of the blankets that covers one of the children.

[imme]

As Jill slides the chains back through the door handles, she is overly conscious of the cell phone she stashed in her back pocket. The call is still ongoing; she hasn't hung up yet. Perhaps her husband will still be on the line and can explain that it’s all been a misunderstanding. Of course he wasn’t actually standing in the hallway. Of course not.

[SuAside]

Jason sets his egoism aside... Why on earth would he steal a blanket from a sick child?

Either way, this chill probably wont be going away with a blanket and all of the sudden he's getting visions of old horror movies where the bad man is able to grab on to the innocent victim due to a blanket or overly wide jacket. Bad idea...

But what should he do? The children's ward is a dead end, there is nowhere to go...

[Laraqua]

Jill can hear footsteps coming from somewhere in the room with her. Jason can hear a woman's heavy breathing coupled with the rhythm of the children's breathing. The darkness crowds in around them now as though their eyes had been sealed shut. The cold quickly steals all sensation from their flesh, leaving them numb. The cell phone is still on, static hissing wildly, but the cell phone only lights up when the buttons are pressed and so it gives no light.

In the darkness, from further down the room, comes the rasping sound of something being dragged.

[SuAside]

"Oh great..." Jason sighs as he frantically starts to search his backpack for his penlight.

[Laraqua]

His fingers grasp about inside his bag, fumbling around amongst his things, and finally catching hold of his penlight.

[SuAside]

Having his light in hand does give him some confidence, but then he realises that it is also a double edged sword... Light will probably make him easy to track for whatever is out there, but without it, he can't see.

Cautiously he switches his maglite on.

[imme]

"Jason? Is that you?" Jill pulls on the doors a few times to make sure they're securely locked again.

[Laraqua]

The small circle of light appears on the wall directly in front of Jason as he flicks the light on. The scuffling sound seems to retreat somewhat towards the far corner. As Jason turns the light in its direction, there is a heavy slam of the middlemost hospital bed being turned over. The child that had lain on it hits the floor and rolls onto her stomach.

[SuAside]

Realising that the drugged children don't stand a chance, Jason decides to make a break for the door in the hope to lure whatever is turning over the beds with him.

[imme]

It's my fault. Jill turns and slowly walks towards the ... whatever it is. Maybe I can do something to keep it from hurting the children. But she has no plan, and no kind of weapon.

[Laraqua]

Jason makes a break for the toilet door (the only one easily opened at this point) as Jill makes her move towards whatever is lurking in the darkness. With the rather small light pointing at the north wall as Jason grabs hold of the door handle and prepares to swing it open, Jill is left blanketed in near total darkness. The dim glow that the torch provides being enough only to define the silhouettes of the beds and the children within them. Due to the arrangement of beds, including the tipped-over one, Jill can't see what's in the southwest corner of the room, but she can hear the sound of flesh and fabric scraping against the linoleum.

Then the scrape of metal. The bed on its side being moved. Swung around a little. Moved to remain in between Jill and whatever lies beyond.

[SuAside]

Jason halts inside the toilets and takes up a position next to the door. He firmly grips the screwdriver he scavenged, ready to stab what comes in after him. Still, he is painfully aware he should be careful, as Jill might enter and he doesn't want to stab her.

[Laraqua]

Jason's breathing echoes loudly in the confined space of tiles and concrete walls despite his best efforts. He waits, positioned between sink and light switch, the torch's light roaming a few inches up and down the door in time with his breathing. The tension of the situation is wearying and his body craves sleep. A tap drips slowly in the background.